Typically, software is not sold outright, but rather the users purchase licenses to use the software. Typically, each software product is provided with a license, referred to as an end-user license agreement (EULA), that the user must accept before installing or being granted access to the software product. The EULAs are important to the user because they describe the terms and conditions, such as how many computers it can be installed on, that are associated with the software product.
Identifying an appropriate EULA for a given software product has become difficult for users. EULAs are typically stored onto the computer in a text form when each software product is installed. Often, the EULAs do not specifically identify a product within the EULA because most EULAs are generically written so that they can be used with different software products and types. It is easy for the user to get confused and misidentify a EULA for a product.
A related problem is associated with multiple EULAs that could potentially apply to a software product. It has become common for computer users to have multiple versions of the same software products installed on their computer at any given time. This can happen for a number of reasons.
One main reason this occurs is due to the practice of providing software products as stand-alone products and also providing collections of software products (a practice referred to as “bundling”) as a single bundled product. One common example of a bundled product is to sell an “office suite” product that may consist of separate professional versions of wordprocessing, spreadsheet, presentation, and communication applications (each of which may also be provided individually as stand-alone products). Often, because of the cost savings, a user may purchase the bundled product even though the user already has one or more of the software products in the bundle, because it is cheaper than purchasing the desired software products individually. A bundled product is often provided with its own EULA that applies to all the software products within the bundle. In this case, the user may end up with multiple different EULAs that potentially apply to the same software product.
For example, a user may purchase a computer with a limited use OEM version of a word processor stand-alone product already installed. This version of the word processor would be subject to an OEM EULA that may include terms relating to the computer manufacturer. Later, the user may purchase and install a full version of the same software product (possibly to get additional features or as an upgrade), now storing a full, perpetual EULA on the computer. Later, the user may install a trial version of a bundled product that contains the word processor with a trial EULA. At this point, there are three different EULAs on the computer that may apply to the software product.
Misidentification of the applicable EULA can cause problems both for the user and the computer manufacturer and software developers. The users can inadvertently overestimate the scope of their rights to a software product and violate the terms and conditions of their license. Alternatively, if the license terms (as often is the case) dictate who is responsible for certain problems that may arise with the software, misidentification of the EULA may cause the user to contact the wrong party when there is a problem.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.